well

adv

1. Accurately, competently, satisfactorily.

   “He does his job well.”

   “My RV runs well on diesel.”

   “The jacket looks good and fits you well.”

   “In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.”

   “A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.”

2. Completely, fully.

   “Well done steaks”

   “Cook the steak well if you expect it to taste good.”

   “We’re well beat now.”

   “I was well looked after by close relations.”

   “Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers,[…]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.”

3. To a significant degree.

   “That author is well known.”

   “A monument well worth seeing”

   “Indeed, some readers may feel that I am beating a horse now already well dead. But in fact, that dead horse is still being driven daily through the pages of introductory textbooks.”

   “Energy markets demonstrated in the 1970s and 1980s that they were well capable of adapting to a perceived scarcity.”

   “neither of us was paying attention to any damn imaginary scoring judges -- we were both well content, if a little fatigued.”

4. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, slang)Very (as a general-purpose intensifier).

   “That guy rocks! I think he's called Matthew Lillard or sommat but he is well cool in Scream.”

   “Hey Dude / FIFA 2003 is well wicked, I've got FIFA 2002 on PS2, David Beckham on Xbox and Football Manager on Xbox too, out of all pf^([sic]) them FIFA 2003 is easliy^([sic]) the best.”

   “Hey, you should've seen it, it was well good.”

5. In a desirable manner; so as one could wish; satisfactorily; favourably; advantageously.

   “I'm glad Joe got fired last week. I think we're well rid of him.”

   “Whatever now the omen prove, It boded well to you.”

   “Know / In measure what the mind may well contain.”

   “October 10, 1714, Alexander Pope, letter to Joseph Addison All the world speaks well of you.”

   “My Son Johnny, named ſo after his Uncle, was at the Grammar School, and a towardly Child. My daughter Betty (who is now well married, and has Children) was then at her Needle-Work.”

adj

1. In good health.

   “I've been sick, but now I'm well.”

   “I've always been a healthy, fit woman, but right now I really don't feel very well.”

   “Mr. Peng said that the world-famous scientist, Sven Hedin, was kidnapped by troops under General Ma in south Sinkiang, but was released later, and is believed to be safe and well at Akosu.”

2. Highly satisfactory

   “Everything well with you?”

3. Good, content.

   ““How are you?” — “I'm well, thank you!””

   “Paulina. As she liu'd peerelesse, So her dead likenesse I doe well beleeue Excells what euer yet you look'd vpon, Or hand of Man hath done: therefore I keepe it Louely, apart. But here it is: prepare To see the Life as liuely mock'd, as euer Still Sleepe mock'd Death: behold, and say 'tis well.”

4. (uncommon)Prudent; good; well-advised.

   “In this respect it would be well for you to depart from the standard format and to indicate why you did what you did.”

   “When executing bone scan protocols, it is well for one to be aware of how key deviations from optimal technique can degrade image quality.”

   “On leaving the operating table it is well to put the patient in a bed previously warmed and supplied with hot cans.”

5. (archaic)Good to eat; tasty, delicious.

   “This wahoo tastes val.”

   “Drunk, like, a gallon of orange mindral. Tasted wel.”

intj

1. Used as a discourse marker.

   ““So, what have you been doing?” “Well, we went for a picnic; and then it started raining, so we came home early.””

   “A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF KINK HISTORY Do we know how kinky practices began? Do we know who the first kinky people were? Well, no.”

   “Well, I am sorry. — It’s okay, Anna.”

2. Used as a discourse marker.

   ““The car is broken.” “Well, we could walk to the movies instead.””

   ““I didn't like the music.” “Well, I thought it was good.””

   “I forgot to pack the tent! Well, I guess we’re sleeping under the stars tonight.”

   ““Well,” I says, “I cal’late a body could get used to Tophet if he stayed there long enough.” ¶ She flared up; the least mite of a slam at Doctor Wool was enough to set her going.”

   “If gold pleased the conqueror, well, That gold should be the one thing The conqueror henceforth should lack.”

3. Used as a discourse marker.

   ““Well,” I answered, at first with uncertainty, then with inspiration, “he would do splendidly to lead your cotillon, if you think of having one.” ¶ “So you do not dance, Mr. Crocker?” ¶ I was somewhat set back by her perspicuity.”

   “It was a bit... well, too loud.”

4. An exclamation of sarcastic surprise (often doubled or tripled and in a lowering intonation).

   “Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

5. An exclamation of indignance.

   “Well! There was no need to say that in front of my mother!”

6. (Ireland)Used as a greeting, short for "Are you well?"

   “Well, lads? How's things?”

7. Used as a question to demand an answer from someone.

   “And what do you think you're doing? ... Well?”

noun

1. A hole sunk into the ground as a source of water, oil, natural gas or other fluids.

   “The woman said unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.”

   “By the end of the tenth century, Edith's humility had inspired a cult of holy wells in Kent, Staffordshire, and Herefordshire.”

2. A place where a liquid such as water surfaces naturally; a spring.

   “Begin, then, sisters of the sacred well.”

3. A small depression, e.g. suitable for holding liquid or other objects.

   “Make a well in the dough mixture and pour in the milk.”

   “Four fixed windows are fitted on the corridor side of the body and nine louvred air intakes on the opposite side. Rubber water drainage pipes are taken from these, and from the pantograph roof well, down the inside of the body.”

4. (figuratively)A source of supply.

   “Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled”

   “A well of serious thought and pure, / Too deep for earthly light.”

   “News of the deaths of James Baldwin and Richard Bruce Nugent in 1987 seemed to signal the death of an era — an era which produced works of monumental significance for Black lesbians and gay men; works such as Giovanni's Room, Just Above My Head, and "Smoke, Lillies, and Jade." As a fledgling Black gay writer, this was the well from which I drew succor.”

5. A vertical, cylindrical trunk in a ship, reaching down to the lowest part of the hull, through which the bilge pumps operate.
6. The cockpit of a sailboat.
7. A compartment in the middle of the hold of a fishing vessel, made tight at the sides, but having holes perforated in the bottom to let in water to keep fish alive while they are transported to market.
8. A vertical passage in the stern into which an auxiliary screw propeller may be drawn up out of the water.
9. A hole or excavation in the earth, in mining, from which run branches or galleries.
10. An opening through the floors of a building, as for a staircase or an elevator; a wellhole.
11. The open space between the bench and the counsel tables in a courtroom.
12. The lower part of a furnace, into which the metal falls.
13. A well drink.

    “They're having a special tonight: $1 wells.”

14. The playfield of Tetris and similar video games, into which the blocks fall.

    “Tetris, the most widely played computer game of all time, is a problem-solving puzzle game. […] The player attempts to lock the falling shape smoothly together with the shapes in the well.”

15. In a microtiter plate, each of the small equal circular or square sections which serve as test tubes.
16. The region of an interface that contains tabs.

    “You can reposition the order of documents in the window by clicking and dragging the tabs, or you can drag a tab out of the well and view a document in its own floating window.”

    “You should now have three documents open with their tabs showing in the tab well (this refers to the row of tabs for each open document in the editor), as shown in the following screenshot: […]”

verb

1. (intransitive)To issue forth, as water from the earth; to flow; to spring.

   “[Blood] welled from out the wound.”

   “[Yon spring] wells softly forth.”

2. (intransitive)To have something seep out of the surface.

   “Her eyes welled with tears.”